Building a house, how small is too small?

[Fermion]

Are you going to put a water drainage system under the deck joists, so that the area under the deck is rain free ?

Both decks will have roofs with gutters...not sure what a under deck drainage system is?

 

[sengsational]

Both decks will have roofs with gutters...not sure what a under deck drainage system is?

Just what I was thinking. The roof makes the slope much less important. I like your design...to have several covered outdoor areas.

 

[finnski1]

Everything I have read recommends 1/8" to 1/4" per foot but several sites do say you don't need a slope if your deck has gaps and the boards are oriented parallel to the house.

I think we will still do the slope on the back deck like we did on the front, even though we have spaced the boards apart according to the Fiberon specs (3/16" gap). That small of a slope I can't see visually or feel when walking on the deck. Heck, maybe in a snow storm/freeze the gaps can get frozen and then you could get melt water on top of them...I dunno

I have a 6 foot wide farmers porch on my house and sloped it 1" total as well.
My floor boards are normal to the house so the water can run right down them. I do however also have a roof and gutter on it so who knows if I needed to slope them. As someone said earlier better to slope away than towards the house

 

[pb4uski]

Both decks will have roofs with gutters...not sure what a under deck drainage system is?

I think that they might be talking about somethng for higher decks that wouldn't apply in the case of your deck since it is so low to the ground.

We have a deck that is 7-8' above grade and we also use the area under the deck. So while the deck itself is level we installed corrugated plastic panels under the deck joists and those are beveled away from the house so rainwater that falls on the deck and drips through the gaps between the deck boards then falls on the the panels and drains away from the house. It also provides for dryer storage for stuff that we store under the deck.

At one point we were thinking of putting a hot tub under the deck but haven't done it yet.

 

[Fermion]

Our back deck is pretty high....about 12 to 13 feet off the ground.

Speaking of back decks, we started on it this week and got the poles, beam and joists installed.

The beam was constructed of three 2x10 16 foot long pressure treated boards...it was heavy after we bonded them together. We used a trick with the wall jacks to allow us to crank it up to the top of the posts easy as pie and safe. Those wall jacks, which were less than $100 at Menards, are just amazingly useful.

This back deck will have a roof on it, that is the next step.

 

[pb4uski]

Ah... I thought that we were talking about the deck pictured on post #217.

Do you have any plans to use the area under the deck? Perhaps a patio underneath?

 

[Fermion]

Ah... I thought that we were talking about the deck pictured on post #217.

Do you have any plans to use the area under the deck? Perhaps a patio underneath?

I don't know. I wasn't thinking of anything but a patio might be nice. You think like building a sub "deck" underneath and tying it in lower to the posts?

My wife at one point said we might lattice it but a patio might look nicer and be more useful.

 

[pb4uski]

Yeah, I guess you could do another deck below and have something to sit in the shade, but I was thinking just pavers on the ground.... less maintenance.

 

[sengsational]

Wow, that back deck is seriously "up there"w

Supporting a roof on that kind of structure is what I wanted to do, but no contractors made a bid (tried 3). I think they were scared off by the inaccessible footings under the 6x6 posts...if not big enough, that wouldn't be to code (decks don't need as much SF size as roofs). I hope you have good plans for diagonal bracing...you don't want that deck swaying any if the roof on it is tied to the house!

 

[Fermion]

Yes, for sure we will be adding diagonal bracing before we remove the temp adjustable braces. We were just discussing how we wanted that to look/work today.

For the footings on this deck, we used a 24" diameter plastic cone Bigfoot form attached to a 40 inch long 10 inch diameter Sonotube and filled the whole thing with concrete and 3 sections of rebar vertically with a 6 inch L bend at the base into the larger part of the 24" cone foot. We do things serious.

 

[sengsational]

Serious footings, indeed. You probably don't have the problem I'm working...I have to match the saggy old joists with the new straight ones. $41 at harbor freight for the planer, and just a couple hours. They're looking pretty even now. Apparently you can end-up with a rolling look with the composite if you have high/low joists, much more noticeable than with the stiffer pine or harder deck materials.

 

[Fermion]

Nice job Seng! It looks like you went with 12" spacing like we did on the back deck...should be good for lower sag if you go with the composite decking which is only 1" thick or so.

I noticed you are not using pressure treated joists. Any concern there? It does look like select grade lumber though.

 

[NgineER]

Tape the joists with a flashing tape to keep moisture out. With the composite decking the joists tend to crumble first, if you protect them the deck will last a very long time.

 

[skyking1]

All good stuff, planing, long strait edge, and flashing over wood.

 

[sengsational]

That wood does look pretty light in color, but it's pressure treated (each board weighed a ton). I had it stacked with spacers, in the shed for a month and it was a little less damp when I was working with it. And yes, generally 12" spacing, but only because the original deck was generally 24. There were a few 16" spaces, which I left. I hope those won't have too much bounce. The manufacturer says 16 is OK.

I put the tape on the rim and up the side of the house, but not sure about spending the time and money on taping each joist. I'm sure it would last longer, but I'm not going to be here forever. The old joists are 25 years old, and in reasonable shape. I need to think more about the joist tape. ETA: If slit to 1.5", it's only $0.07 per LF of membrane, so $30 worth could do it. Cheap now, and will make the world better for someone in the future, I suppose.

I'm putting in mid-span blocking today. My BIL had a deck built and I'm going to his scrap pile, as I only need 10 1/2 inch lengths, mostly. So rather than cut up several $20 boards, I'll go with the free solution. The original deck didn't have blocking, but it's a 12' span, and the composite isn't as stiff, so figure it's needed.

 

[harley]

Hopefully you'll be able to finish the job a little less expensively now.

Lumber futures fell for an eighth straight day

 

[Fermion]

It must take awhile for the drop in lumber futures to trickle down as I see Home Depot and others still have the higher prices for 2x material.

They are quick to raise prices when their supplier goes up but slow to drop when their supplier drops the price.

 

[sengsational]

They are quick to raise prices when their supplier goes up but slow to drop when their supplier drops the price.

Yes, that's for sure. When I see Lowe's and Home Depot have the same price...to the penny... I wonder if it's competition or collusion

 

[finnski1]

I don't know. I wasn't thinking of anything but a patio might be nice. You think like building a sub "deck" underneath and tying it in lower to the posts?

My wife at one point said we might lattice it but a patio might look nicer and be more useful.

How's the house coming? Haven't seen any pics in a while